Home
by RavenCurls
Summary: The heroes returned after the final battle with the First Order. Wrote this because I hate it when my favourite character dies.


Leia Organa, known as General Organa to the people around her, or simply General nowadays, looked at the sky, her expression unreadable.

There were multiple spots in the sky, still too tiny for their shapes to be discernible. Around her, some of the people fidgeted and shuffled, but most of them held their breath, their eyes unblinking, trained on the spots in the sky. But unlike them, her eyes were fixed on only a particular dark, almost circular, spot, her ears tuned to the barely audible spluttering its engine made, sounds that would spell disaster for any other ship, except for this one.

As the crafts slowly descended, their bodies took on the shapes and sizes of different ships. Leia knew every single one of these ships and the people inside. Each of them had their own stories, stories of where the ship came from, stories of the brave men and women flying the ships, the scars on the metal bodies telling of the numerous battles that they had gone through. Right in the middle, like a queen surrounded by her loving subjects, was the Millennium Falcon.

The Millennium Falcon was the last to touch down, landing smoothly in the middle of the clearing. If Leia did not know better, she would have thought that Han was at the pilot seat, steering the ship skillfully with his years of experience. But she knew better. Rey, the scavenger girl from Jakku, had piloted the craft on the return trip, and the girl had been one with the ship the moment she took the seat.

The crowd surged forward the moment the first door opened, the smiles on their faces growing wider as familiar faces came into view. Cheers, claps and chatters erupted all around as they greeted the returnees. These were friends, families, heroes.

Survivors.

Leia stood where she was, her eyes still on the battered Millennium Falcon, willing the door at the bottom of the craft to open.

It finally did.

A floating bed descended, flanked by a man at each corner.

A hush fell upon the crowd, most of them turning to look at the latest entrants. Some of them turned to look at Leia, anticipating her reaction.

She took a deep breath, and stepped forward as General Organo as she approached the bed.

His eyes were closed. Around him, the machines beeped, tracking his vitals as the chemicals from the drip kept him unconscious so that he would not put up a fight on the way back. She had not seen him in years, but Leia would recognise her son anywhere. She looked at him, the shape of his face like hers, the thick, dark hair like Han's. He was their son, no matter how much he tried to deny it, no matter what he had done. Leia suppressed a sigh. Her fingers twitched, as if she could put her hand through the protective glass casing and touched his face.

"I'm sorry," a soft voice pulled her out of her reverie.

She pulled her eyes away from the unconscious figure and met a pair of apologetic dark eyes.

Rey.

The girl took a deep breath before she spoke again. "I'm sorry that I have to hurt him. I'm sorry that I'm not fast enough to stop him from ..."

Her words were cut off as Leia pulled her into her embrace, her arms winding around the girl's stiff torso.

"No," the older woman told her. "Thank You. Thank you for not killing Ben. Thank you for saving Han."

She felt the stiffness seeped out of the girl's body. A tiny smile graced her lips.

Leia gestured to the men who flanked the bed, and they nodded wordlessly, nudging the bed so that it would change its direction and go into the bunk that was their command center. Ben would be kept there under maximum security and nursed back to health. Leia knew that he would be interrogated once he was well enough; they needed to know more about the First Order and their plans. It would be a tough job, knowing how stubborn Ben was, but Leia knew that it was necessary. She looked back at the girl, and focused her attention on the other stubborn man in her life.

"Now where's that stubborn old fool?"

Rey chuckled at the term of the affection that the General used.

Someone coughed behind the girl.

Leia's hands dropped, the girl temporarily forgotten.

Chewbecca was next to him, a hairy arm under Han's shoulders to support him. His shirt was opened, revealing the bandages that were wrapped around his torso. The crisp white bindings and the lack of blood told her that he had changed the bandages just before landing. Han had his usual roguish grin on his face, but every step was a tight hobble, and every movement was accompanied by a grimace on his face.

"Now who's calling me a stubborn old fool?"

She had wanted to stay where she was to show her dissatisfaction, but the pain on his face made her forget her resolution. She went to him, relieving him from Chewbecca, and pulled him into her soft open arms. He wrapped his arms around her, his usually strong arms weak, and the soft grunt that he gave involuntarily told her how much pain he was in. He smelled of Chewbecca, stale cabin air and fuel. And it smelled like home.

"You're not supposed to move around," she chided him.

"No chair," he declared loudly, and then he lowered his face to her. "How can I appear before you looking like a weakling?" he jested.

"You and your ego," she replied candidly after she had kissed him.

She knew what had happened; Rey had provided a summarised report over the comms on their way back. Ben had tried to kill Han with his light saber, but the old man had hopped back instinctively at the first thrust, and what was supposed to be a fatal stab had turned into a deep a gash across his torso instead. Finn and Rey had gone down from where they were, storeys high, and forced Ben out into the freezing open before she had defeated him. Finn was injured in the process. Chewbecca had extracted an injured Han before the explosions and quakes had destroyed the whole base. It would be some time before the First Order was strong enough to strike again.

They had won for the time being, but at what price? Leia tightened her embrace. It seemed almost cruel that while almost all the other families had lost at least a loved one, she had gotten both her husband and son back.

Han sighed, as if he could feel her sorrows. "We've brought him back, Leia. Ben is back," he told her.

Leia nodded slightly. She blinked, and Han's hand went to her eye and gently brushed the single tear away.

"Dust," she muttered.

Han chuckled. A silence, and then Han looked up at the underside of his ship.

"Well, whoever who had taken my ship had not taken good care of it," he said with a huff. "I reckon there's a lot of things that I need to fix."

"No fixing," Leia admonished him. "You're going to the isolated sick bay immediately, shackled if need be, and you will not be allowed to leave until you have fully recovered." She knew that he would attempt to leave once he could take ten steps without collapsing. As much as she wanted him to stay, she knew that she would not be able to stop him. A Han without the wanderlust would not be the man that she knew and loved.

He cleared his throat.

"Well... maybe I'm not in that much of a hurry this time round."

Leia's eyebrows rose.

He shuffled painfully forward, leading the way to the bunk, leaning heavily on Leia.

"I …" he paused for a while before he admitted. "I thought that I'd never see you again." His thoughts went back to that day, the sounds of the fierce fighting outside as he lay bleeding on the floor, thinking of the woman whom he had loved for so long and how he had let her down.

Chewbecca growled behind them, and Han remembered that they were not alone. He tried to straighten, and placed a hand on the bandages where it hurt.

He cleared his throat. "I think I need to do an all-round inspection for her. Change some wiring, clean out the fuel tank, repair the hydrodrive. Maybe an overhaul. And I need to wait for Ben to wake up so that I can spank him for all the things that he have done. I believe that some disciplinary is in order."

"It's going to take me some time," Han added with a grin. "And… I think I can be useful around." He looked at his surroundings casually. "Who knows, this can be home."

Leia could not help but smiled at his reluctant admission. She gave him a peck on his cheek.

"Then welcome home, Han Solo."

 **AN Thank you JuliaAurelia for pointing out the mistake on Leia's name! :)**


End file.
